The Tribune

By NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Features Editor

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

The emotion on the face of Janet Bostwick, the first woman to be elected to House of Assembly in the Bahamas, painted a fitting picture of the historic joint sitting of Parliament, held yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage movement.

In the special assembly, female parliamentarians from the House of Assembly and Senate participated in a joint reading of the landmark speech delivered by Dame Dr Doris Johnson in 1959 on behalf of the women’s suffrage movement. They each read an excerpt from the speech, placing on permanent record the audacious and revolutionary words spoken by Dr Johnson just three years before women went to the polls for the first time on November 26, 1962.

Ms Bostwick, who watched the presentation from the visitor’s gallery, was also present in 1959 when Dr Johnson first delivered her address to parliamentarians in the magistrates court. She was a young political activist working at the attorney general’s office, which was upstairs from the court house. When the Parliamentary procession filed across to the magistrate’s court she watched from the balcony of her office, racing downstairs to be present for the main address. With excitement and awe Ms Bostwick said she listened to the words spoken by Dr Johnson.

“It was really intense and I remember standing there almost biting my teeth,” said Ms Bostwick.

When Dr Johnson invoked “invincible womanhood” in the opening line of her speech, referred to herself as “mother of men” and raised women to the stature of rulers of the world, she was speaking to an audience of men, who in the main were not advocates for the enfranchisement of women. The government majority was “tolerant but not accepting”, according to Ms Bostwick. “There were few who were listening with rapid intent and internalising except the members of the opposition,” she said.

The commemorative event held yesterday painted a completely different picture. Prime Minister Perry Christie described the bipartisan display as lifting the spirits of the ancestors of the movement. Ms Bostwick said she felt a “sense of fulfilment at last and satisfaction”.

“I remembered being moved to tears then and I was moved to tears again in the House of Assembly today. It was a very emotional time for me. I was recalling so very many things about the struggle and thinking so very much about our achievements over the last 50 years,” said Ms Bostwick.

Ruby Ann Cooper-Darling, the first woman to register to vote had similar emotions. “I thank God that after 50 years when I registered to vote that I am still here. To be able to be here it is just an awesome time for all women in the country regardless of what may be their class or status. It is a great day; it is propitious; it is fortuitous; it is just wonderful. I am very, very happy,” said Ms Cooper-Darling.

She registered just three days after her 21st birthday, as a gift to herself. “I was ready to vote, ready to take a stand and ready to be recognised,” said Ms Cooper-Darling.

“I grew up in a home where my father was very active; a baptist minister, an outspoken freedom fighter. For me to have been 21, I was well aware of all that was happening. I knew the women. I was very much involved. I was 21 on that Friday and with the law coming into effect in just a few days, I saw it as going there and getting the (first) prize,” she said.

The journey to enfranchisement began in the late 1940s as a petition drive. The effort grew over the years into a full blown social and political movement. It reshaped the Bahamas, producing an “evolution in democracy and a revolution in the spirit of our people,” said Member of Parliament Hope Strachan, grand daughter of Mary Ingraham, a leader of the movement.

Ms Strachan and the eight other female parliamentarians reflected on the moment in prepared addresses. They honoured the leaders of the movement, including Ms Ingraham, Eugenie Lockhart, Georgiana Symonette, Mabel Walker, Dr Johnson. They also paid special tribute to the thousands of nameless men and women who support the effort, whose “toil and labour, passion and fervour” made change possible. The event was staged through the inspiration of filmmaker Marion Bethel who wrote Mr Christie several months ago, suggesting the government stage a commemorative reading of the speech. She was in the gallery for the event.

Ms Bethel released a documentary on the women’s suffrage movement on Friday, “Womanish Ways: Freedom, Human Rights and Democracy”.